Haven't read the exclusive Martin Hamish press release about his new gastro-tavern, The Dark Horse? See it here.
Blind item of the week (and one that I'm incredibly excited about): A craft beer bar will be coming to Midtown in roughly the same time it takes to conceive and gestate a baby. Except this baby's father is one of the most esteemed bar owners in town. And the baby will have a diet primarily composed of small-batch craft beers. It'll be taking up residence next to another beloved bar, right along the light rail, making this small section of Midtown suddenly infinitely more intriguing. And that's before you've heard the name of the place...
In other equally exciting news, the tiny Jonathan's the Rub will soon be tiny no longer. Increasing popularity has led to the restaurant's decision to add 50 more seats -- some inside and some outside -- to more than double its capacity from 40 to 90 people. Expect the new seating layout to be done within the next few weeks. (And if Jonathan's burger is crowned king at Monday's 2011 Burger Bracket Championship, expect it to be pretty busy for a while too.)
If you've been wondering about the stucco monstrosity that's been slowly erected behind Agora and the antique store on Dunlavy, wonder no more: It's a wine bar, and -- according to my sources -- it will be called Bacchus (of course).
This weekend, if you want to escape to a non-"hospitality zone," the Heights should be mostly NCAA-free. And you'll be able to hit up the Heights Ashbury Coffee Shop while you're there -- it opened yesterday morning. (We received what turned out to be an inaccurate report that Heights Ashbury was open. It is not yet open. Apologies for the confusion.) According to B4-U-Eat, the coffee shop will be serving freshly made juices by Juicy In the Sky and a vegan menu by Radical Eats in addition to a rotation of locally roasted, organic coffees.
Also now open once again is Skewers, which closed for several months after an electrical fire. I'm happy to report that the baba ganoush and kafta kabobs are as good as ever, and the patio has already been filling back up with folks smoking shisha and enjoying Lebanese wine.
Closed, however, is The Elegant Hogg, a westside bar whose continued presence in its scary little strip mall always confused me all these years. A toast to the dearly departed.
On the next page, a recap of all the openings and closings from March 2011.
